Based on one of the hottest television shows, this 3rd-person fighting adventure game delivers the same intense action, characters, and humor that created a massive following. Developed as a lost episode from the show, the original story begins when Buffy and friends discover a dreaded enemy from the past is at the center of a great struggle with The First- the ultimate incarnation of evil. They must face an undead army of terrifying vampires, zombies, and demons to keep these hellions from casting the world into permanent darkness.

The original story begins when Buffy Summers discovers that an enemy from the past, Ethan Rayne, is at the center of a great struggle with The First, literally the first incarnation of evil the world has ever known. Buffy and the gang must face an undead army of vampires, zombies, and demons to keep these nefarious villains from casting the world into permanent darkness.

Key Features

• Authentic Buffy Universe - involvement from the TV show's creator and writers, voiceovers by numerous cast members
• Play as Buffy and 5 other main characters from the show: Xander, Willow, Spike, Faith, and even Sid the Dummy
• Unique weaponry and over 100 character-specific slayer moves and combos
• New evil characters such as zombie gorillas, plus new environments
• Multiple fighting with up to 4 players - choose from 4 modes and 24 good or evil characters
• DVD-style bonus content: Cast interviews, photo gallery, storyboards, unlockables, making of the game footage, and Chaos Bleeds e-comic

GCM:

Please start us off by introducing yourself and telling us how this second Buffy game came into being.

Greg Goodrich:

My name is Greg Goodrich, Vice President and Executive Producer of Vivendi Universal Games. The concept for the second Buffy game was kicked off by David Stalker, who was the producer of the first game. Luckily for us, he also lent his talents and his exceptional knowledge of the material to Chaos Bleeds as well. The story itself was a collaborative effort between David, Eurocom (the developer) and Buffy comic book writers Christopher Golden and Tom Sniegoski.

GCM:

How many people associated with the Buffy television program are involved with the game and what’s being done to remain faithful to the show’s style and fiction?

Greg Goodrich:

We had the full support and involvement from Buffy creator Joss Whedon, the majority of the show’s cast, as well as various members of Mutant Enemy Productions, who are the producers of the television show. Along with Chris and Tom, who have authored the official Watcher’s Guidebooks, novelizations and series regulars on the comic books, there certainly was no shortage of Buffy knowledge on the product.

GCM:

For fans of the well-received Xbox title, Buffy the Vampire Slayer™, what from the original will be making its way into Chaos Bleeds?

Greg Goodrich:

The first game was certainly well received but we wanted to do more. We listened to the fans and expanded upon every aspect of the first game from the number of slayer moves and combinations, to the number of weapons, items and enemies, to the number of characters you can actually play. We’ve also added a multiplayer component with 24 unlockable characters, both good and evil, to battle across 4 different modes of play. We’ve taken everything that was great about the first game and have expanded upon it.

GCM:

Please give us some sense of the story behind Chaos Bleeds and the type of environments we’ll be seeing.

Greg Goodrich:

Ethan Rayne is back in town and he’s brought along with him the ancient evil known as The First. Buffy certainly has made her enemies in the past, but now Ethan has returned to Sunnydale, asking for Buffy's help. He has roused The First into offering him a deal which will gain him the power he has always dreamed of. All Ethan has to do in exchange for this power is to lure Buffy, along with her friends, into a battle of wits and ability. The “dimensional bleed” that is occurring has allowed us to bring back long dead enemies and former foes as well as introduce new ones. It has also allowed us to visit a few places we thought we’d never see again. And as with the characters, the “bleed” has also allowed us to invent new environments that Buffy fans have never seen, but I’ll save those as a surprise.

GCM:

As for Chaos Bleeds’ combat engine, what new moves and weapons will the player be given access to?

Greg Goodrich:

The game’s combat system is very similar to the first game. There are punch, kick, jump, target and defend buttons assigned to the controller, and different combinations of these buttons can be used to pull off different moves. However, between the six playable characters there are twice as many moves and combinations as the first game. There are also a large number of weapons in Chaos Bleeds. The major weapon classes are broken up into stakes, axes, swords, staff weapons, ranged weapons and throwable items. And each class has multiple examples of each type. There are also environmental objects that can be used as weapons. Some torches can be removed from walls and used to burn enemies or you can decide to throw enemies into burning objects such as flaming barrels. Environmental stakes are also in abundance. Any piece of protruding wood in the game can be used to dust a vampire when thrown upon it.

GCM:	What can you tell us about the multiplayer options that Chaos Bleeds will feature?
Greg Goodrich:	As I mentioned above, we’ve included a pretty robust multiplayer mode with 24 unlockable characters and support for up to 4 players (with the use of multi-tap on the PS2). There are 4 different multiplayer modes: Survival, Bunny Catcher, Slayer Challenge and Domination and 4 arenas to choose from in each mode. You can also chose to play as good or evil.

GCM:	Will there be any visual or gameplay differences between the various versions of Chaos Bleeds?
Greg Goodrich:	All three versions of the game are very similar. The Xbox version has a few additional graphical features, and the PS2 version has some additional bonus content. This being said, the actual game is identical. Players just need to decide which controller they like the best.

GCM:

Finally, the previous Buffy game managed to win high accolades from gamers and reviewers alike but never seemed to find the success it deserved. Are you concerned that gamers are beginning to shy away from licensee-based games and how do you plan to combat this?

Greg Goodrich:

I certainly don’t think gamers are beginning to shy away from licensed based games. It’s quite the contrary actually. At the end of the day, a game has to be fun no matter what the content is. A game can look great and have a strong franchise behind it, but if it doesn’t stand on its own and isn’t fun to play, no character in the world is going to save it. The great thing about Chaos Bleeds is that without the story and without the characters, it has an extremely robust fighting engine, an extensive combat magic system and over 20 weapons for players to choose from in the single player game alone. So even if you’ve never seen a single episode of Buffy, you will enjoy this game. As a fan of the show, the characters and the story just make it that much better.

GCM:	Thank you for your time! Do you have any last thoughts or comments that you’d like to leave our readers with?
Greg Goodrich:	Thank you. Hopefully your readers will enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed making it!

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